A breed is a specific group of domesticated animals that have been bred to all look and act in a similar fashion. It could also be for a number of other specific traits that are intended for a myriad of tasks depending on the animal we are speaking about.
A “breed” of something is a term commonly thrown around by people in the pet industry. Whether it be a “purebred” dog or this and that breed of horse, it is not a term that most people could say they have never heard before.
However, most people probably couldn’t tell you exactly what a breed of something is. And, although I gave a definition, many people are still probably wondering what exactly what I said means.
However, if I break it down into more simple language, it will hopefully become more and more clear as to what the term breed means. And, as a side note, how is it different from other terms such as “family,” “species,” or “genus.”
What is a breed?
To begin, a breed is not the same thing as a species, a genus, or a family of creatures. Although all four terms are used to describe a specific group of animals, two different breeds of a dog for instance can still be the same species.
And on a similar note, genus and family are also just other scientific terms for classifying animals. Genus and family are just simply more broad than species and can encompass many species within them.
To go back to my definition, “a breed is a specific group of domesticated animals that have been bred to all look and act in a similar fashion.” Essentially what this means is that you have taken a specific animal and bred certain traits into it.
Let’s say you have three dogs. Two of those dogs are very healthy and just the sweetest cutest little dogs you could find. They love people and are nice to be around. On the other hand, the third dog is mean, tends to bark a lot, and has a lot of health problems.
A breeder would take the two nice doggies, and breed them because the traits that those two dogs have are desirable. Then, the puppies would be culled for those same traits and bred with other dogs that have those traits and on and on.
This will eventually lead to a new breed of dog that has that cuddly temperament. You have just bred a friendly dog breed! The same thing applies to us with the horses.
A horse breeder will pick the horses with traits he wants and breed them. Those traits could be that they are fast like to be ridden, are very handsome looking horses, or perhaps are just incredibly strong.
Then, they will pick another horse with similar traits (one male and the other female obviously) and then breed them. After some generations, they will end up with a breed of horse that expresses those traits that they wanted.
Why Do Breeds Exist?
You might be thinking to yourself that it is all well and good to breed dogs or cats or horses for specific traits, but why? Cant, you just find a regular dog or horse or cat with the traits you want and just use them?
Why go through all of the effort to breed animals for generations? Well, why would someone practice a lot on an online casino Australia no deposit bonus? Because they can get more consistent results.
When you breed animals for the traits you want, you know that that breed of animal is going to have the traits you want. Whether it is a super fast horse or a really friendly dog, you know that if you pick that breed, you will be able to have an idea of what you are getting.
It also is just useful to have different animals that are specialized for different things. You are never going to have one animal that is good at everything, so you need to pick and choose what you want.
This means you are probably going to need multiple animals for different tasks, or simply to pick what traits you are willing to give up on. For instance, you might want a really fast race horse, but that doesn’t mean it is going to be strong enough to pull a plow.
But, if you had a really strong horse that could pull a plow really well, it probably would also not be very fast. This is simply how the world works. Sometimes you have to choose what is most important and give up on the rest.
